“The bottom line is the city’s parks and open spaces where the oil and gas rights have been leased remain city parks and open spaces and haven’t been connected to another use, and therefore the city charter is not implicated and certainly has not been violated,” John Staran said.

Staran’s comments were in response to a lawsuit filed late last week by William Bidwell, who believes that the oil and gas right issues should have been decided by the voters. A similar lawsuit was filed earlier this year by a group of citizens called Don’t Drill the Hills.

The city’s charter states that “city owned parks and open spaces shall be used only for park and open space purposes and shall not be sold, leased, transferred, exchanged or converted to another use unless approved by a majority of votes cast by the electors at an election,” Bidwell’s lawsuit states.

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Staran maintains that the parks and open spaces have not been affected.

“There’s been no transfer whatsoever of any city park or open space, nor a conversion to any other use,” he said.

“The nature of the oil and gas lease and the various conditions included in that lease ensure there is absolutely no effect on the use or the development of the recreational or conservation values or benefits of any city park or open space.”

Workers did not enter the property and have not performed any drilling, fracking or other alteration of the land, Staran said.

“There’s zero impact on the trees, grass, water, courses or other park features, and absolutely no interference or change or restriction on any park properties, continuing an unimpeded use for public park and open space purposes,” he said.

As for the pipeline issue, Staran said Sunoco worked to clean and realign its pipeline that stretches from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, to Pennsylvania. They were able to clean and realign a portion of the pipeline underneath Bloomer Park “without digging a single hole, without touching a blade of grass (and) without touching a single tree,” he said.

Also, since the pipeline has been underneath the park since the early 1950s, another charter provision applies, Staran said.

That provision states that “the existing use of a park or open space … shall be considered a lawful use of that property,” Staran said.